Zambia Women National team coach Bruce Mwape lamented silly goals conceded by his team during the international friendly match against South Africa played at Bidvest Stadium in Milpark.
Mwape felt his team allowed easy goals which they handed their opponents on a silver platter. Mwape went on to say that he thought his players were fit only to be exposed during the game.
Mwape who spoke to th ZamFoot Crew after th match said all the three goals Zambia conceded were due to defensive lapses and failure to react quickly during set-pieces.
“We allowed goals which were not supposed to be goals, We started well but towards the end of the second half we conceded two avoidable goals, We thought that our players are fit during training but looking at them today they have actually shown that most of them are not fit,” he said.
“Generally I can say they performed well but we have a long way to go. When it comes to game discipline some of them did the right thing. From midfield going up, we did well but the build-up from the back was a problem.”
“All the three goals were defensive lapses, it was from a set-piece and a free header was scored. We always tell them to mark tight in the box but there was nothing like that on that goal, The second goal was also the same also came from a set-piece and our defense was slow in reacting, the last goal was supposed to be cleared by the goalkeeper but I don’t know what she thought but was very simple to clear. We have just given them all the three goals on a silver platter,” he added.
Mwape believes the team needs more high-profile friendly matches to be ready for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which take place in July and August.
” Our coming here was basically to assess our junior players, we still need to look at other players, We still have some more foreign-based players who when they can am sure will make a difference,” he said.
“Barbra Banda has been our key player even during qualifiers but we also have Kundananji and Hellen Mubanga who plays in Spain she is one of our best players.”
” We need to play more high profile games for them to be ready for the Olympics. The next game they should expect a positive result because this was an eye-opener,” he added.
Barbra Banda put Zambia in the lead in the 19th minute but Noko Matlou leveled matters and put South Africa in the lead in the 39th and 43rd minute respectively before Thembi Kgatlana could seal the result in the 52nd minute.
Zambia next faces the Harambee Starlets in another international friendly match scheduled for Saturday, 24th April. Coach Bruce Mwape is using the friendly matches as part of preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
